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Hi,

I'm planning on using a sheet of Paua Shell as the Headstock veneer for a Baritone Ukuele I'm building.



Has anyone done this before and give me some pointers on the best glue to use. Titebond? Epoxy? The last thing I want is in a few years time for the laminate to start separating from the Headstock.

The back is a resin as shown in the photo below.




thanks,

Geoff.

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Building my first Ukuele.

Geoff, I haven't worked with pearl like that.
I did want to welcome you to the forum.
I'm sure someone will be able to help you out.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

The only thing I see about using abalam like that is the seams between the shell strips not being attractive in my opinion. I haven't seen an abalam sheet with a backing on it before. How thick is the sheet and where did you get it?

I'd sand the back with 220 or 400 to activate it and use CA as a first choice. When I've glued shell to various surfaces (pretty much everything: wood, metal, plastic) the CA joints were most solid over time.

Epoxy would probably be a good second choice, but I wouldn't bother unless you have some specific reason not to use CA. I also haven't tested epoxy on shell, so I can't give any results.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

+1 for Epoxy

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Thanks for the responses Bob and Chris.

The Paua Shell sheet I bought (rightly or wrongly) through eBay. I haven't checked the but the item description gave it's thickness as 0.013" or 0.33mm thick.

The resin backing will need to be finely sanded as it to doesn't appear, at least to this little black duck, to be sufficiently smooth or true to provide an effective surface to glue.

It looks the goods though.

Thanks for your help.

Geoff.

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Building my first Ukuele.